86 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



musical in all weathers and throughout the summer. He describes its song 

 as unvaried, as rather monotonous, and closely resembling that of C. cyanea. 



Their nest, he adds, is usually built in a bush, not more than three or four 

 feet from the ground, formed of fibrous roots, strips of bark, and grass, with a 

 lining of vegetable down or hair, and securely bound to the surrounding 

 branches. The eggs, five in number, he describes as white, faintly tinged 

 with blue. At Santa Barbara he found them freshly laid May 6. 



These birds are never gregarious, thougli the males come in considerable 

 flocks in tlie spring, several days before tlie females. They travel at night, 

 arriving at Santa Cruz about April 12. A nest found by Dr. Cooper, May 7, 

 in a low bush close to a public road, was about tliree feet from tlie ground. 

 It was very strongly built, suj)ported by a triple fork of the branch, and was 

 composed of blades of grass firmly interwoven, and lined with horsehair and 

 cobwebs. It measured three inches in height and three and three fourths 

 in width. The cavity was two inches deep and one and three fourths wide. 



In Arizona Dr. Coues found this bird a summer resident, but not abun- 

 dant. 



At Puget Sound this bird arrives about May 15. Dr. Suckley states that 

 in Oregon it was observed returning from the south, in large flocks, in one 

 instance of several hundred individuals. 



The eggs of the Lazuli, when fresh, are of a light blue, which on the least 

 exposure soon fades into a bluish- white. They are almost exactly oval in 

 shape, and measure .75 by .60 of an inch. One end is somewhat more 

 rounded, but the difference is slight. 



Cyanospiza versicolor, Baikd. 



VAEIED BUNTING. 



Spiza versicolor, Bon. Pr. Zool. Soc. 1837, 120. — Ib. Conspectus Av. 1850, 475. — Cab. 

 Mus. Hein. 1851, 148. Carduelis luxuosxis, Lesson, Eev. Zool. 1839, 41. Cyanospiza 

 versicolor, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 503, pi. Ivi, f. 2. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 234. 



Sp. Char. Posterior half of hood, with throat, dark brownish-red ; interscapular 

 region similar, but darker. Forepart of hood, les.ser wing-coverts, back of the neck, 

 and rump, purplish-blue ; the latter purest blue ; the belly reddish-purple, in places tinged 

 with blue, more obscure posteriorly. Feathers of wing and tail dark-brown, edged with 

 dull bluish. Loral region and narrow frontal band black. Feathers on side of rump 

 white at base. Length, 5.50 ; wing, 2.75 ; tail, 2.38. 



Female. Yellowish-brown ; paler beneath, and lightest behind. No white on wing. 

 Tail with a bluish gloss. 



Hab. Northern Mexico, and Cape St. Lucas. Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365) ; Oaxaca (Scl. 

 1859, 379) ; Orizaba (Scl. 1857, 214) ; (Sum. M. B. S. I, 551 ; breeding) ; Guatemala 

 (ScL. Ibis, I, 17). 



The bill is stouter and more swollen to the end, and the mandible is much 

 more curved than that of C. cyanea ; and its perfectly concave commissure, 

 without any shallow lobe in tlie middle, and the much more arched ridge^ 



